saam gabbay

Los Angeles personalities Kerry Simon, Josh Richman, Eric Greenspan, Charissa Saverio (DJ RAP), Jason Bentley, Johnny Zander, and Jenn Laskey join on set in Los Angeles for the Belvedere Vodka shoot. LA producer was Alessandra Pasquino with Bill Megalos and me on camera.

A shoot for Elizabeth Paige Smith’s Kittypod creations, featuring her cat Kat, taken at the studio in Venice.

I was invited to give the first ever alumnus commencement speech for the graduating students of UCSB’s art studio department today, almost exactly 20 years after I had set foot on campus.
It was a total honor that I ruined terribly by telling the students that just because they chose to make art doesn’t mean anyone is going to pay them for that privilege, and that they were going to die soon so they should get on with living.  Needless to say, there was more applause from family members than from the students as they have absolutely no concept of death yet.

Thank you to my friends and mentors Kip Fulbeck and Richard Ross for the opportunity.

I shot neck ties for director Craig Price.  Well, neck ties and about 500 other objects for his icon-rich spot for Citizens Bank called “Everyday Points.”  Kevin Shale was agency producer for Arnold Worldwide.

A massive combination of ID work, print, video, and product design for Gensler and MGM Grand / Las Vegas.  Partnering up with Orange22 in downtown Los Angeles, we helped create the Harmon’s identity as part of MGM’s City Center development.

Acura had never animated their end tag before so the client was eager to see a lot of options.  I designed this end tag while the french mounted police were riding by, which made it all the more appropriate since James Spader endedup doing the VO for it.For HUMUNCULUS, Max Keane, Christian Perez and Alessandra Pasquino.  For RPA/LA it was Kenia Colderon and ECD Mark Erwin.View Quicktime

I directed Toyota Anthem for Saatchi & Saatchi NY.  It was a fully animated :60 in HD with a combination of Cell animation, 2D, and 3D.  This is what it looked like at Humunculus half way through the production of Anthem.  Cell animation and paint on the left… Alessandra producing in the middle, 3D and AEP on the right.  View Anthem Quicktime.  Click for a large pano jpeg.

On set with DP Arlene Donnelly Nelson shooting the 1 hour class sequence for Feel Good Yoga.  Paul Sangster of Future Lighting provided projection support.  Oliver Reinsch was instructor.

Shooting veteran instructor James Brown for Yoga Works’s 2005-2006 campaign which was featured in-store, nationally, and in their print ads for Yoga Journal and the rest.

Eric Grunbaum and Scott Trattner made HUMUNCULUS their home during the compilation and production of Big Magazine’s Issue #51: “Technology.”  I shot the cover as well as panoramics for the table of contents, etc. and got to hang out with two of Venice’s big brilliant brains.

Chiat/Day asked us to create style frames around the iPod experience as they were getting to roll out what would ultimately become the silhouettes campaign.  We created a book of distinct styles in 24 hours (a period of time synonymous with eternity for this client) and mixed photos, graphic arts and 3D.  Heck a few of them even had silhouettes so who knows…

There’s something crazy about sitting in a studio on a Mac, delivering a project on a drive, then walking into a huge theater and watching the project projected in ultra-wide anamorphic format. Ludovic and I boarded IFP’s festival trailer.  I animated, and Bix did sound design. View Quicktime